Why The Sixth Sense Ending Has Never Been Matched

And why it never will be

The Sixth Sense came out 15 years ago today, and it still contains the greatest twist ending since its release. Postmillennial films like Identity and Memento were excellent in the same pursuit, but the '90s were the greatest era of plot-warping finale mind enemas to ever grace the silver screen. The Sixth Sense met The Usual Suspects standard, and that will never be outdone.

Nobody saw that ending coming. Sure, he wore the same shirt, his wife ignored him, and it was cold all the time. Sure, there was a lot of red stuff, and that door handle got some conspicuous screen time. But none of that was enough to truly expose the A-bomb ending.

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First-time viewers had no idea that Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) was dead until the last scene of the movie. Anyone who claims he saw it coming wears his pants afire, because The Sixth Sense did everything right. Here's a rundown:

Haley Joel Osment

If Mara Wilson and Macaulay Culkin had a child, it would be 1999 Haley Joel Osment, the quintessential baby face o' profundity. If that kid were your nephew, you'd take him out for ice cream every week just to meet women. Naturally, little Cole seized control of viewers' empathy from the moment the kitchen cabinets opened mysteriously and trouble started brewing.

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The audience grew so preoccupied with Cole's supernatural curse that Dr. Crowe's failing marriage often seemed like an irrelevant distraction from the plot's heart. Only a sociopath could look at that poor little ghost whisperer and not obsess over protecting him. He didn't take the bumblebee pendant, dammit!

Stuttering Stanley

The Stuttering Stanley scene connected with current and former students everywhere to add a sense of familiarity to the film. Kids can be assholes. It's not hard to find a story about a grade school teacher who lost his or her temper.

When I was a kid, I watched my math teacher send a boy to the principal, slam the door behind him, and accidentally shatter the door's glass into the hallway. Another teacher got pissed off at someone's yapping and threw the blackboard eraser at his (my) head. Somewhere in the world every day, a grade school teacher comes to work on a bad day, faces one too many obnoxious brats, and has a straight-up Stuttering Stanley meltdown.

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The Scare Tactics

The Sixth Sense's scare tactics run deeper than the hackneyed sensory startles of second-rate horror films. There are only so many ways a cat can jump out at the screen to sounds of shrieking dissonance.

Granted, there was the occasional shock of a mangled ghost strolling by, but it wasn't shoved down our throats the whole movie. The Sixth Sense used nuances to terrify on a visceral level that permeated all dialogue. When you jumped, it was because you'd been waiting to for sheer release of tension.

The Donnie Wahlberg Scene

Holy hell, just look at this Donnie Wahlberg scene. You show me several movies in which a character actor stole the spotlight, and I'll show you a Donnie Wahlberg highlight reel. This is one of the greatest performances in the history of actors whose role is under four minutes total. Sure, that's a really specific claim to fame, but he earned it.

The Revelation

The grand epiphany that our beloved child shrink had been dead all along did not come underhanded. The dots were there all along, but nobody, including the audience, wanted to connect them. The Sixth Sense's ending was shocking without being cheap, unforeseen without feeling deceptive, oddly comforting without seeming banal, and gave closure without looking lazy. Plus, it came at the end of an era during which audiences still allowed themselves to be surprised by major movies. It was perfect.

Why twist endings can no longer match The Sixth Sense

Unfortunately, 1999 (a banner year for cinema) was the last time any movie ending was capable of shocking viewers in such a way. Even a perfect surprise ending (beginning?) like that of 2000's Memento encountered an insurmountable barrier that plagues movies to this day: audiences more easily anticipate a final plot twist.

After the '90s, audiences were jaded by the very concept of a surprise ending. The greatest decade of finale plot contortions introduced Jacob's Ladder,The Shawshank Redemption, 12 Monkeys, Seven, The Devil's Advocate,The Usual Suspects, American Beauty,Fight Club, and many more. After the '90s, the unexpected was always expected.

By the time America saw Vanilla Sky, the 2001 English adaptation of Spain's 1997 Open Your Eyes, it seemed like a paint-by-number reality confusion that surfed the wake of The Matrix. Minority Report's prophetic alteration of future demise smelled of Terminator 2. And 1997's The Game brought the it's-all-one-elaborate-ruse gambit before Matchstick Men and Lucky Number Slevin had a chance.

Some might argue that M. Night Shyamalan is a one-trick pony who recycles the same formula for all of his films. To this I must say, absolutely. (Side note: Making water the unforeseen Achilles heel of the hyper-intelligent aliens in Signs was moronic.) You can't blame him for trying to relive the glory days, though.

Never again will viewers be 1990s naive, nor will Shyamalan's tricks seem new. The revealing of the long-dead protagonist of The Sixth Sense brought us a shocking twist ending that can't be beat.